A Cooler thinks about what he’s supposed to think about.
A Closer thinks, analyzes, and eventually he acts.
A Cleaner doesn’t think at all, he just knows. We’re all born bad. You cannot be great without it.
Picture a lion running wild. He stalks his prey, attacking and killing at will, and then goes in search of his next conquest. That’s what his lion instincts tell him to do, he doesn’t know anything else. He’s not misbehaving, he’s not bad, he’s being a lion. Now lock him up in the zoo. He lies there all day, quiet and lethargic and well fed. What happened to those powerful instincts? They’re still there, deep inside, waiting to be uncaged. Let him out of the zoo and he goes lion again, preying and attacking. Put him back in the cage, he lies down.
Most people are the lion in the cage. Safe, tame, predictable, waiting for something to happen. But for humans, the cage isn’t made of glass and steel bars; it’s made of bad advice and low self-esteem and bullshit rules and tortured thinking about what you can’t do or what you’re supposed to do. It’s molded around you by a lifetime of overthinking and overanalyzing and worrying about what could go wrong. Stay in the cage long enough, you forget those basic instincts.
But they’re there, right now, waiting for you to find the key to the cage so you can finally stop thinking about what you’ll do if you ever get out. All that killer instinct is just waiting to attack.
Can you be reasonably successful by just following directions and staying within the lines? Sure. That’s what most people do. But if we’re talking about being elite, if you want to be unstoppable, you have to learn to put aside everything you’ve been taught, all the restrictions and limitations, the negativity and doubt.
If that sounds complicated and confusing, let me make it simple:
You have to stop thinking.
Again: Can you be the best? Of course you can. Then why are you still questioning your ability to do it? Quick answer: because at some point, you made something simple into something complicated, and you stopped trusting yourself.
Everything you need is already inside you. You are completely wired with instincts and reflexes specifically designed so you can survive and succeed. You don’t have to think about using them, they’re always working.
Reflexes are easy: If I whip a ball at your face, are you going to stop and think about what to do? No, you catch the ball or duck out of the way, or you get a busted face. At the very least you’re going to flinch. If I flick something toward your eyes, you blink. If you touch something hot, you pull your hand away. We’re all born with those basic survival skills. You can’t teach or unteach them, they’re just part of you. You don’t have to think about whether those reflexes will come through, they just always do.
That’s how I want you to envision instinct. No thinking. Just the gut reaction that comes from being so ready, so prepared, so confident, that there’s nothing to think about. If you’re driving, and suddenly the car ahead of you slams on its brakes, do you pause to consider all your options or stop to ask for advice? No, you slam on the brakes. No thought, no hesitation. Instant response, based on experience and preparation. If you think, you die. When you just know, you can act.
Tough challenge, to stop thinking about what others tell you to think.
When you become too focused on what’s going on around you, you lose touch with what’s going on deep inside you. Those are the guys who are perfect in practice, but blow it when it counts. They can’t find the Zone, they’re distracted by their own thought process, and they don’t trust themselves. They’re thinking about everything that can go wrong, thinking about what everyone else is doing, thinking instead of knowing, without a doubt, I got this.
The greats never stop learning. Instinct and talent without technique just makes you reckless, like a teenager driving a powerful, highperformance vehicle. Instinct is raw clay that can be shaped into a masterpiece, if you develop skills that match your talent. That can only come from learning everything there is to know about what you do.
But real learning doesn’t mean clinging to the lessons. It means absorbing everything you can and then trusting yourself to use what you know instantaneously, without thinking. Instinctive, not impulsive . . . quick, not hurried. Knowing without a doubt that all the hours of work have created an unstoppable internal resource you can draw on in any situation. Having the maturity and experience to know who you are and how you got to the top, and the mental toughness to stay there.
Oprah once said, “Every right decision I’ve ever made has come from my gut, and every wrong decision I’ve ever made was a result of me not listening.” Exactly. Of course, she also spent twenty-five years doing a show for people who preferred listening to her instead of listening to their own gut, as she told them whom they should believe and what they should do and how they should change. Every day, millions of people showed up to hear someone tell them what they were doing wrong, so they could receive instructions on how to live according to someone else’s standards.
People don’t change. You can make millions of dollars or lose millions of dollars, you can get a promotion or lose your job, gain forty pounds or lose forty pounds . . . but you’re still the same person. Exactly the same. You can change environments and spouses and careers . . . you’re still the same person. No matter what you try, it’s a temporary deal; sooner or later, you’re going back to your natural self.
"In order to have what you really want, you must first be who you really are.”
In a Cooler, an idea will travel from his brain to his mouth—he has to talk about it, discuss it, share it with others for feedback and approval. In a Closer, it travels farther down toward his gut, but instead is diverted toward his heart, where it becomes slowed down by emotion and more thought. In a Cleaner, though, a thought moves straight to the gut, where instinct takes over and puts it into immediate action.
That’s the ultimate difference between a Closer and a Cleaner, by the way. A Closer thinks about what he wants; a Cleaner feels it. A Closer tells his heart what he wants the outcome to be; a Cleaner’s heart decides on its own, he never has to think about it. Total confidence in his gut. The difference is that millisecond of pause between thinking, “I can do this,” and not having to think anything at all.
When you’re great, you trust your instincts. When you’re unstoppable, your instincts trust you.
Instinct is what tells you how to finish the fight. When you’re listening to a mess of external directions, you’re going to end up trying a million little things, without complete confidence that any of them will work. But when you’re trusting yourself, you have the focus and efficiency to pinpoint the one big move that will do the job.
Think about a boxer, who can go around and around in the ring, ready for anything, until suddenly he seizes the moment he’s been waiting for. No wasted motion, no panic, no room for error. He’s played the moment in his mind so many times, he’s so prepared, he doesn’t have to think about it. He knows exactly what to do. That’s instinct.
Believe what you know about yourself. When I decided to get a degree in kinesiology, everyone said, “Oh, you’re going to be a gym teacher?” No, I’m going to train pro athletes. “You can manage a health club!” No, I’m going to train pro athletes. There is zero chance you’ll get anywhere if you allow yourself to become paralyzed by soft excuses and countless reasons why you’ll never get to where you want to be. Trust your gut to navigate the hard road to get there.
Stop thinking. Stop waiting. You already know what to do. But instinct is only half the formula; you can’t be a relentless competitor without a trip to the dark side.
A Closer thinks, analyzes, and eventually he acts.
A Cleaner doesn’t think at all, he just knows. We’re all born bad. You cannot be great without it.
Picture a lion running wild. He stalks his prey, attacking and killing at will, and then goes in search of his next conquest. That’s what his lion instincts tell him to do, he doesn’t know anything else. He’s not misbehaving, he’s not bad, he’s being a lion. Now lock him up in the zoo. He lies there all day, quiet and lethargic and well fed. What happened to those powerful instincts? They’re still there, deep inside, waiting to be uncaged. Let him out of the zoo and he goes lion again, preying and attacking. Put him back in the cage, he lies down.
Most people are the lion in the cage. Safe, tame, predictable, waiting for something to happen. But for humans, the cage isn’t made of glass and steel bars; it’s made of bad advice and low self-esteem and bullshit rules and tortured thinking about what you can’t do or what you’re supposed to do. It’s molded around you by a lifetime of overthinking and overanalyzing and worrying about what could go wrong. Stay in the cage long enough, you forget those basic instincts.
But they’re there, right now, waiting for you to find the key to the cage so you can finally stop thinking about what you’ll do if you ever get out. All that killer instinct is just waiting to attack.
Can you be reasonably successful by just following directions and staying within the lines? Sure. That’s what most people do. But if we’re talking about being elite, if you want to be unstoppable, you have to learn to put aside everything you’ve been taught, all the restrictions and limitations, the negativity and doubt.
If that sounds complicated and confusing, let me make it simple:
You have to stop thinking.
Again: Can you be the best? Of course you can. Then why are you still questioning your ability to do it? Quick answer: because at some point, you made something simple into something complicated, and you stopped trusting yourself.
Everything you need is already inside you. You are completely wired with instincts and reflexes specifically designed so you can survive and succeed. You don’t have to think about using them, they’re always working.
Reflexes are easy: If I whip a ball at your face, are you going to stop and think about what to do? No, you catch the ball or duck out of the way, or you get a busted face. At the very least you’re going to flinch. If I flick something toward your eyes, you blink. If you touch something hot, you pull your hand away. We’re all born with those basic survival skills. You can’t teach or unteach them, they’re just part of you. You don’t have to think about whether those reflexes will come through, they just always do.
That’s how I want you to envision instinct. No thinking. Just the gut reaction that comes from being so ready, so prepared, so confident, that there’s nothing to think about. If you’re driving, and suddenly the car ahead of you slams on its brakes, do you pause to consider all your options or stop to ask for advice? No, you slam on the brakes. No thought, no hesitation. Instant response, based on experience and preparation. If you think, you die. When you just know, you can act.
Tough challenge, to stop thinking about what others tell you to think.
When you become too focused on what’s going on around you, you lose touch with what’s going on deep inside you. Those are the guys who are perfect in practice, but blow it when it counts. They can’t find the Zone, they’re distracted by their own thought process, and they don’t trust themselves. They’re thinking about everything that can go wrong, thinking about what everyone else is doing, thinking instead of knowing, without a doubt, I got this.
The greats never stop learning. Instinct and talent without technique just makes you reckless, like a teenager driving a powerful, highperformance vehicle. Instinct is raw clay that can be shaped into a masterpiece, if you develop skills that match your talent. That can only come from learning everything there is to know about what you do.
But real learning doesn’t mean clinging to the lessons. It means absorbing everything you can and then trusting yourself to use what you know instantaneously, without thinking. Instinctive, not impulsive . . . quick, not hurried. Knowing without a doubt that all the hours of work have created an unstoppable internal resource you can draw on in any situation. Having the maturity and experience to know who you are and how you got to the top, and the mental toughness to stay there.
Oprah once said, “Every right decision I’ve ever made has come from my gut, and every wrong decision I’ve ever made was a result of me not listening.” Exactly. Of course, she also spent twenty-five years doing a show for people who preferred listening to her instead of listening to their own gut, as she told them whom they should believe and what they should do and how they should change. Every day, millions of people showed up to hear someone tell them what they were doing wrong, so they could receive instructions on how to live according to someone else’s standards.
People don’t change. You can make millions of dollars or lose millions of dollars, you can get a promotion or lose your job, gain forty pounds or lose forty pounds . . . but you’re still the same person. Exactly the same. You can change environments and spouses and careers . . . you’re still the same person. No matter what you try, it’s a temporary deal; sooner or later, you’re going back to your natural self.
"In order to have what you really want, you must first be who you really are.”
In a Cooler, an idea will travel from his brain to his mouth—he has to talk about it, discuss it, share it with others for feedback and approval. In a Closer, it travels farther down toward his gut, but instead is diverted toward his heart, where it becomes slowed down by emotion and more thought. In a Cleaner, though, a thought moves straight to the gut, where instinct takes over and puts it into immediate action.
That’s the ultimate difference between a Closer and a Cleaner, by the way. A Closer thinks about what he wants; a Cleaner feels it. A Closer tells his heart what he wants the outcome to be; a Cleaner’s heart decides on its own, he never has to think about it. Total confidence in his gut. The difference is that millisecond of pause between thinking, “I can do this,” and not having to think anything at all.
When you’re great, you trust your instincts. When you’re unstoppable, your instincts trust you.
Instinct is what tells you how to finish the fight. When you’re listening to a mess of external directions, you’re going to end up trying a million little things, without complete confidence that any of them will work. But when you’re trusting yourself, you have the focus and efficiency to pinpoint the one big move that will do the job.
Think about a boxer, who can go around and around in the ring, ready for anything, until suddenly he seizes the moment he’s been waiting for. No wasted motion, no panic, no room for error. He’s played the moment in his mind so many times, he’s so prepared, he doesn’t have to think about it. He knows exactly what to do. That’s instinct.
Believe what you know about yourself. When I decided to get a degree in kinesiology, everyone said, “Oh, you’re going to be a gym teacher?” No, I’m going to train pro athletes. “You can manage a health club!” No, I’m going to train pro athletes. There is zero chance you’ll get anywhere if you allow yourself to become paralyzed by soft excuses and countless reasons why you’ll never get to where you want to be. Trust your gut to navigate the hard road to get there.
Stop thinking. Stop waiting. You already know what to do. But instinct is only half the formula; you can’t be a relentless competitor without a trip to the dark side.
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